Switching or setting a preferred tuner?

[djseto]

I've got 2 SD tuners in my Sage box. Tuner 1 is starting to go bad but hasn't completely stopped capturing. Is there a way that I can "swap" the Tuner assignment so that Tuner 1 is now Tuner 2 and vice-versa? I don't record that many SD shows (I've got 2 HD tuners as well) but when I do, I want it to use the tuner that I know is good. I tried removing Tuner 1 and then adding it back, but as soon as I do that, it gets assigned back to Tuner 1 and Tuner 2, which was Tuner 1, gets assigned back to Tuner 2. I know I can just swap the card physically on the MB, but I really don't wanna do that if I can avoid it. I also don't see any option in the preferences to set it a tuner preference for my SD shows (using the SageMC theme).

Thanks

[GKusnick]

Search the forums for "encoder_merit".

[Savage1701]

Yeah, you have to change the properties file for merits for each tuner.

I have a bunch of tuners on my system, and I'll probably get attacked for saying this, but I can't say changing their merits changed the way Sage selected them, even though it should. For instance, I had an older OTA ATSC tuner that I wanted as last in line because it was the worst if weather was a little bad, etc., so I raised the merits of other tuners, but Sage still seemed to use it whenever it wanted to, even in scenarios when it explicitly did not need to.

Just make sure when you edit the properties file that Sage is shut down, either as a program or service, that you open the properties file (I use Notepad), edit it, save it, and then re-launch Sage. I don't know if you need to do anything else under Vista or Win 7 as I only run Sage server under XP.

[wayner]

I have been running Sage with 4 tuners for a couple of years and encoder merit has always worked as advertised. I have (in order of merit) an OTA tuner, SD digital cable and 2 HD digital cable tuners.

@Savage - are you sure it didn't keep using the OTA tuner because it was getting HD channels while your other tuners were SD? Sage will prefer HD channels over SD channels unless you tell it not to.

[Savage1701]

Wayner - that's a very fair question. Here's roughly my present setup, as it pertains to this issue, which deviates slightly from what I show as my system specs:

I have 3 OTA ATSC tuners pointed at the Madison, WI market and 3 OTA ATSC pointed at the Rockford, IL market. They only record primary HD channels, not secondary SD digital OTA ones. I have an HD-PVR which is ONLY set to record premium-channel HD content from my cable box (think HBO, DISCHD, Cinemax, A&E HD, etc.) It is not set up to recognize any HD cable channel representing an OTA channel in my area. In fact, that confuses my Sage system, and my cable company compresses HD anyway, so I have 2 reasons not to do that. I also have an analog cable tuner that only recognizes SD version of cable programming, such as NIK, Boomerang, Cartoon Network, or other shows not available on the HD side of my cable programming. It is also specifically configured NOT to recognize or record SD versions of my local OTA channels.

That being said, if I give the 3 tuners pointing at Rockford or Madison specific, different merits, I still can't count on Sage to not pick the highest merit tuners first. For example, I had an old DVICO OTA ATSC card that I was 99% sure was causing issues. I give it the lowest merit. I gave a brand new dual Hauppauge 2250 tuner high merit numbers on both of its tuners. Sage still insisted on using the DVICO first, albeit randomly. Same thing if I switched the DVICO unit into my Rockford market. I could not "force" Sage to always prefer the higher-merit tuners first.

I also tried this scheme with an older, poorer-performing tuner that was a tuner of last resort but was not causing problems with actual recordings, it just was not sensitive and even a light rainstorm rendered it useless. Sage could not have cared less, even under controlled conditions where I would record 1 HD show, then start a second HD show, then a third HD OTA show. In either market, that DVICO card, or the weak tuner card, would sometimes be the first, second, or third tuner to fire up.

Maybe there is another property file besides each tuner's merit I am not editing correctly. If there is, I am unaware of it.

[wayner]

That is a pretty complex arrangement! Have you tried speaking to Sage about the priority problems?

I don't watch much OTA but my setup was:

1st priority OTA - setup with all OTA channels
2nd priority SD digital cable - set to receive all SD channels but no HD channels
3rd priority HD-PVR1 - set to receive all HD channels, including OTA, and only a couple of SD channels that I record a lot - Nick and other kids channels.
4th priority HD-PVR2 - set to receive all HD channels, including OTA, and only a couple of SD channels that I record a lot - Nick and other kids channels.

On my system OTA shows would always record on the OTA tuner if available, if I needed to record a second OTA available channel (which is rare) the HD-PVR would kick in to record. My kids' shows would record on the SD tuner unless it was busy at which times they would kick over to one of the HD-PVRs. I never really found that I needed all four tuners but my merit always worked as expected - but it isn't nearly as complex as your setup

I don't really watch OTA content other than 30 Rock and some OTA sports (golf, hockey, football) although I did watch more during the Olympics. Most of my viewing is on Kids' channels, which are generally cable-only although there is an OTA-only channel called Qubo that I record from at times. I also record a lot of sports channels that are cable only as I record all Toronto Maple Leafs hockey and Toronto Raptors basketball games as well as all rugby on Setanta Sports.

I live in Canada but I have the advantage of being directly across Lake Ontario from NY state so I can receive all Buffalo channels in addition to Canadian channels. If I wanted to I could also receive Rochester channels but there isn't anything there that I can't get from Buffalo.

[pjpjpjpj]

FWIW - I have posted this here several times in the past few years and no one ever had a "me too" or a suggestion to fix...

I have two HDHRs, all OTA, one of which (two tuners) gets programming from a nearby city, and the other (two tuners) from a different city. So I have two of each of the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox).

I have my merit settings for the "City 1" tuners first, then the "City 2" tuners.

None of the shows that we have set as Favorites are limited to certain channels, in case there's a conflict.

The odd part: When I reboot the server or reboot Sage (for some tweaking or whatever), everything is fine. But after a few days, all shows (that are on both cities), for some reason, slowly start recording on "City 2" tuners. Eventually, everything we record (that is available on both cities) will record on "City 2", even though "City 1" is prioritized. This is with no other shows recording simultaneously, so there is no explanation.

It's not a big deal, because both cities record fine (the only difference is the station logo in the corner and the commercials and such). It's just odd.

Any time I restart Sage or reboot the server, it returns to recording per merit ("City 1" first)... for a couple of days, and then starts going back again.

[Savage1701]

Wayner - yeah, I've spoken to tech support and posted before, and no one knows why.

PJ - I never tried to recreate your issue of chronological drift, but it sounds very similar to mine. But I have yet to find an answer. I don't let my tuners cross markets as you do, but merit does not matter intra-market among the three I have/have experimented with. I almost wonder if things at a lower level, such a slot assignment, USB vs. slot usage, or even interrupt assignments overrule Sage.